#I was inevitably deeply affected by this story as it broke in february and remain such

[tye-wig-music]

cw murder, transmisogyny, discussion of serial killers

ultimately I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that brianna ghey’s killing was motivated more by a Leopold & Loeb-esque desire to commit a murder as the enactment of a power fantasy (the alleged killers discussed multiple potential victims before settling on Brianna) rather than principally by transmisogyny per se (although - in case you haven’t read the reports - one of the defendants referred to Brianna as “it” in whatsapp correspondence & the other seems to have been erotically fascinated by her; dehumanisation & objectification were doubtlessly factors here; I mean more that it does not seem on the face of it to have comprised any sort of first step in a genocidal programme). of course, dahmer’s victims were preponderantly gay men of colour; the yorkshire ripper’s, predominantly sex workers; it is no accident that the targets of sadistic and psychologically-motivated murders are regularly vulnerable, disempowered members of marginalised groups. this trial is in its infancy and further facts may come out, but for the moment it seems that the transmisogny implicit in this horrific act of violence was indeed largely implicit; her killers may have had an easier time committing her murder because of her trans identity, but were not apparently motivated specifically by it. Which I did find surprising, but perhaps should not have.